I'm a dual Colombian-Luxembourgish freelance journalist, inveterate traveler and writer based in the world's only Grand Duchy. I write a column on European affairs for the opinion page of El Tiempo, Colombia's main newspaper. I have been a columnist for Newsweek International, and have written for, among others, the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and the Toronto Globe & Mail.

No American Horse Steak for You, Europeans

One of the surprises we got when we moved to Luxembourg was in the butcher section of the supermarkets, where a selection of horse meat appears among the beef, veal and pork. We had to be careful not to take it by mistake since it looks almost the same as beef, if slightly darker.

A horsemeat butcher in southern France photo: Wikipedia

We’re not horse meat eaters, although my husband has been tempted to accept a friend’s invitation to a restaurant that prepares “the best horse steaks in the country.” Throughout Europe - France, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, and Netherlands, among others – and in a few Asian cultures, horse meat is a delicacy.

We never saw horse meat for sale in the U.S., and only recently I learned that country’s ban against the slaughter of horses was lifted last year.

Clearly, it’s not having a wide effect: A new restaurant at New York’s MoMA PS1 Museum in Long Island started offering horse meat in its menu, earning a story on NBC news where the reporter explained that “there is no real market for human consumption of horse meat in the United States” because many Americans consider horses to be pets.

Yet, as part of my education on the subject, I learned that a percentage of the horse meat sold in Europe comes from American horses shipped to countries like Mexico and Canada with a tradition of industrial horse slaughtering. Slate magazine attributes the tradition to the U.S. ban, which “shifted horse slaughter abroad, where consumers aren’t so squeamish about equine dining.”

What sparked my interest in the consumption of horse meat (called hippophagy, by the way), was a recent report by European food officials warning against U.S. horse meat because, of all things, doping. The officials argue that the horses have been so injected with steroids that their meat is toxic.

We’re not talking about a small herd. In 2010, the U.S shipped Canadian and Mexican slaughterhouses some 138,000 horses destined for tables in Europe and elsewhere. Becoming dinner for foreign diners seems to be the normal final destination for retired or damaged racehorses.

A troubling corollary is that we’re also not talking about an occasional dose of performance-enhancing drugs. It seems, rather, that we’re in Lance Armstrong-style country as racehorses suffer heavy doping throughout their racing careers.

The New York Times has reported on prominent trainers disciplined for using legal and illegal drugs on their horses, and that “horses loaded with painkillers have been breaking down in arresting numbers.” They examined U.S. horse racing records and documented 24 horses dying each week at U.S. racetracks. Over a recent three-year period, almost 4,000 horses were found to be loaded with illegal drugs.

The European Commision’s General Directory for Health, meanwhile, found that the slaughterhouses don’t always respect the directive that requires racehorses to be pastured drug-free for six months before being shipped for slaughter.

The Times concluded that the U.S. industry as a whole is “still mired in a culture of drugs and inadequate regulations and a fatal breakdown rate that remains far worse than in most of the world.”

Easy choice for me: I’m sticking to the beef, pork and poultry sections.

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Thanks, Cecilia, for your article on this important subject. It is taking a long time for Europeans to get informed on the food safety hazards of US horse meat. Every bit of coverage about the wide spectrum of banned drugs in the majority of the US population of slaughter horses helps.

Cecelia, It’s about time the consumers of American Horse meat know the extent of the toxicity of what they eat. Though I do not eat meat, and abhor slaughter of horses for human consumption, those that do partake be forewarned about the forged documents, dirty deals and the enormous amounts of dangerous drugs given to companion horses. The EU should take measures to protect consumers from eating tainted meat by refusing imports coming from the US via Canada and Mexico.

Clear and concise information that the countries listed need to know. We abhor things that can and do harm us but especially our children. Feeding them toxic meat should be high on that list. Thank you!

Robert, The removal of the language to defund the inspection of horse meat from the Ag Appropriation bill was done in a closed door committee session during the reconciliation of the house and senate versions of the bill, 3 congressmen, Kohl, Kingston and Blount voted to remove the language and Farr voted to keep the language in. This was done at the last minute in a well planned finesse by the pro-slaughter faction. The house then had to approve the measure, even long term very strong proponents of a horse slaughter ban, had to vote yes on the bill or the government would have faced a shut down of 4 depts at Midnight on the next day. The President had no choice but to sign the bill and was most likely not even aware the one sentence had been removed.

As far as having eaten dog as a child…. please, he was a child who ate what was put in front of him. The president was a co-sponsor of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention act as a senator.

Jo-Clair présents the évents correctly with respect to the details she included. However, to define the President’s record on Horse Slaughter without examing the details a little closer is to assume that the President feels strongly about a subject that he has totally ignored as President despite the pleas of hundreds of thousands of citizens that included a Washington DC visit where ten-year old New Hampshirite DeClan Greg delived 100’s of letters written by children writing to ask for an end to the cruel practice of horse slaughter. The Children’s Letter Writing Campaign was organized with the help of Jo-Clair. Over seventy-thousand letters were delivered to a House Congressinal Committee by philanthropist Madeline Pickens in 2010 pleading the case for America’s wild horse and burro herds being removed in masse from the Congressional designated public lands set aside for them. Once these horses and burros are rounded up, the public rarely if ever has the the opportunity to see them again. They are warehoused in holding pens, or sent to long term pastures in the mid-west or prisons (for humans)—and then, a great many disappear out the back gates for a trip to death row Mexican style. Of course, the 2005 APHIS Review of US horse slaughter that was carried ut for eleven months from January 2005 until November 2005 dispels any illusions anyone in America should have about the US beigng a kinder, gentler Angel of Death than Mexico (Kaufmanzoning.org).

The issue of drug tainted horse meat is more easily documented through the Thoroughbred Racing Industry due to the lip tattoos each Thoroughbred race horse is required to have, the post-race testing of the winner as well as some random testing as well as the public nature of horse racing. Both the public and the press are usually present to witness the break-down of race horses that has led to tragic and usually fatal injuries to the horses as well as catastrophic (quadriplegia, brain injury) and fatal injuries of the jockeys. The consequences of a permissive race-day look-the-other-way performance enhancing drug culture has allowed mediocre horses to defeat horses born and trained to perform at superior levels than the otherwise also-rans. The consequence for the racing industry is that they have spend several decades breeding genetically inferior horses to one another based on their somewhat deceptive winning records. Furthermore, new developments in the field of microbiology seem to suggest that the mare lineage may be fare more important than the sire which is the opposite operating approach to breeding taken by most breeders.

However, the Thoroughbred Racing Industry is a small fraction of the horse slaughter picture. Seventy percent of US horses sold for slaughter are Quarter Horses or classified as Quarter Horse types (a category that may very well be the mask for wild horses sold into slaughter). No sector of the horse industry has done more to see that the horses they produce can be sold for slaughter than the American Quarter Horse Association. They have also been extremely active in the anti-wild horse movement that is determined to run rough-shod over every federal land-use and environmental law and regulation put into place to protect these horses. Of course, the gravesty of this is that the market for Quarter Horses is very similar to the market that is in love with the idea of having an American or Spanish Colonial Mustang as an equine partner. The fact that the wild horse is genetically superior from a “Suvival of the Species” perspective.

The American Quarter Horse Association and the entities that profit when AQHA profits as well as the four US agencies that manage public lands for federally protected wild horses and burros in the West and along the Atlantic barrier islands and peninsulas.

Concerned about illegal/legal drugs given to US racing/training Thoroughbreds? That’s just one segment of the population of US horses sent to slaughter for human consumption. Non-racing Thoroughbreds, racing and non-racing Quarter Horses, and any other breed of horse in the US is likely to have been given drugs or treatments that should prohibit that particular animal from being a food animal, for the rest of its life. Per Veterinarians for Equine Welfare: “Approved use of medications in food animals is specifically contingent upon observation of recommended withdrawal times. Withdrawal times have been experimentally determined in traditional food animals; however, withdrawal times for these drugs have not been established in horses. Thus, medications that are FDA approved for use in traditional food animals come with specific withdrawal schedules printed on the packaging, while the same medications, purchased for horses do not include the requisite withdrawal schedule, but simply state “NOT FOR USE IN HORSES INTENDED FOR FOOD”. As US horses are not raised as ‘food’ animals, the meds and applications do not include withdrawal times prior to slaughter. European diners sure are getting a mouthful: http://www.vetsforequinewelfare.org/medications.php http://www.americanhorsemeat.com/horsemeat.html Consumer beware. And don’t expect the US government to prevent this unregulated species from shipping to other countries for slaughter and consumption there. This has been going on for years. Profits rule, and humane treatment means nothing. Support federal legislation banning horse slaughter for human consumption in the US, and its associated bulk transport: The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011 (bills S 1176 and HR2966) and any similar, future legislation.

We so need to get The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act passed to prohibit the knowing and intentional possession, shipment, transport, purchase, sale, delivery, or receipt of a horse for slaughter for human consumption and stop the war on our American horses NOW! HR2966/S1176! I have talked with a former butcher and he said that slaughtering horses is just wrong!

Horse meat was actually never banned.. Funds were haulted from American Tax payers paying for their USDA inspections.. They could have fund themselfs but, all that support a horse slaughter plant talked the talked..

Supporters such as the (AQHA) American Quarter horse Assoc, (APHA) American Paint Horse Assoc,(AVMA), (AAEP), Pork,Beef, Swine Industry not to mention Farm Bureau..

These are special interests groups that have NO HISTORY of helping promote or donating to any Horse Rescues in the US.

Horse Slaughter is merely a reward for criminals and irresponsible breeders that are breeding out of control and NO regulations.

Auctioneers like Leroy Baker of Ohio that own and operate Sugar Creek needs the kill buyers to make a profit..

Their motto might as well be sell quanity NOT quality. Old Leroy owes thousands of dollars in fines and have not paid a dime to date..